January 2019

January is the Monday of months for me. It’s that fall off the train (whether it is moving or standing still) landing on your behind and discovering that you have just spilled more than half of that much needed cup of coffee. Like that. Only for an entire month. Please take no offense, all you January-lovers. I am only speaking for myself. My very best friend loves January — yet she gets why it is so hard for me (this year, last year and the one before that anyway . . . ) I try really hard to re-frame it. I generally, do not do the ‘word’ thing, the long list of resolutions and goals — and hence don’t do the pressure and later the judgement thing either when I am not able to meet them. Id do love the clean slate however. And if I was to create a ‘word’ or motto for the year, I think it would actually be a hashtag — #startagain … #andagain.

We are lucky to have two of our three children’s birthdays to look forward to in January — two short weeks after the holidays end in December. It brings a little fun to the month that can otherwise be cold and dreary in Normandy. This year my oldest turned twenty, three days after my youngest turned eight. It’s an interesting gap of time between them — and we have a fifteen year old in the middle.

As this is the first official writing I have done this year — outside of Instagramming and blurbs here and there, will keep it brief. My hope is to continue like this and get more writing out into the world. The book looms (err— I mean hovers) overhead and I have learned the hard way that it takes extreme EXTREME discipline to carve out writing time each day or week. But I want to tell you, as much as I love the online shop — which is our income, and Instagramming and all that sharing inspiration and being inspired brings, and I enjoy our other endeavors; Rabbit Hill memberships and clubs — and I obviously don’t expect that publishing a book will bring us a fortune or any more stability than we already have — THE BOOK aches inside of me. It whines sometimes, cries often — and always pushes to be written. The stories demand, in their own way, to be told.

So here I am again. I sit. I commit. And of course I — #startagain.

Happy New Year chers amis. In France you can officially say that to everyone you meet for the entire month of January — so let’s do, for a few more days. Cheers to a new year and whatever it may be for you.